Spring 2018 – Rats are everywhere. Since 2015, complaints to 311 about vermin have more than doubled. Washington D.C.’s increasing population is primarily to blame, creating more food waste for rats to thrive on. Ample greenery and failing infrastructure provide space for rats to build their burrows, while citywide construction drives them back into the open in search of new homes. And the consistently warming winters caused by climate change also make life easier, colder winters thin out the city’s rodent population.
There are multiple initiatives trying to quell the rising tide. The D.C. Humane Rescue Alliance runs the “Blue Collar Cat Program” stationing formerly feral cats (who have been vaccinated and fixed) at businesses around the city to patrol their alleyways. New – “smart” – trash bins can secure waste in sealed containers, then alert the city when full. And of course, there is the small army of public and private exterminators working to eliminate the rodent problem, using classic tools like bait boxes and pesticide to kill the rats, and new tools like predictive analytics to determine where their work can have the most impact.
Rats live off of the waste we create, so these are only band aid solutions. The only way to reduce the city’s rat population is to live more sustainably and produce less waste.